There is something about an old road that remembers.
Maybe it is the faded signs standing stubbornly beside the pavement, the old gas stations that have watched generations of travelers pass, or the crackle of a radio playing somewhere in the distance. Maybe it is the way certain songs can carry you backward through time, landing you in a place you haven’t thought about in years.
Last Saturday evening, at Lincoln County On-Stage, the past seemed to seep through the walls.
Between musical numbers, the grainy sound of an old radio station drifted through the speakers. Onstage, a Route 66 sign was painted at the center of the set. In the back, a familiar piece of Chandler history served as the backdrop: the Westfall Gas Station, just a stone’s throw from the theater itself.
For a few hours, the MotherRoadwasn’tsimply running through Chandler. It was taking the stage.
Lincoln County On-Stage’s(LCOS)production of “Route 66 the Musical,” written by Roger Bean, arrives at a particularly fitting moment. This year, Route 66 is celebrating its centennial. For a community that has lived alongside this historic stretch of highway for generations, the occasion is about more than looking backward. It is about rememberingwhattheroad has meant–and what it still means.
“We live right here on historic Route 66, so this isn’t just nostalgia for us. It’s part of our community’s identity,” said Trish Lenora, who is directing the production alongside her husband, Larry Lenora.
Trish and Larry discovered “Route 66 the Musical” while traveling in Florida several years ago. When they saw it, they knew they wanted to bring it home to LCOS. With the centennial approaching, the timing finally seemed right.
And home is exactly what this production feels like.
There is something wonderfully nostalgic about hearing those old, familiar songs fill a theater. The cast–Emma Kalka, Shawn Miller, Nic Muehlmann andSharonReese–breathes new life into them, turning songs from another time into something alive.
The cast may be only four, but the sound they create is anything but. Fourpart harmony is no small undertaking and, according to Trish, one of the biggest challenges has been getting four individual singers to sound like one group. They worked toward that blend since July, eventually adding choreography to bring the music to life. The result is energetic and fun to watch.
The theatre was full of laughter as heads bobbed to the music. People smiled and laughed. Some quietly mouthed words to songs they hadn’t heard in years. More than one person tapped their feet throughout the entire show.
Andsomewherebetween the laughter and the music, something else happened. A memory came back. For my husband, who attended the musical with me, the songs brought backmemoriesoflistening to the oldies station with his dad while traveling to family reunions. For me, I was back in the barn at my grandparents’ farm, handing my Gramps tools as he worked on the tractor, both of us singing along to some of his favorites.
That is the strange magic of music. A good memory can linger like a ghost. It can sleep quietly somewhere in the back of your mind for years. Then, without warning, a familiar melody slips through the air, and suddenly that memory is standing beside you again. I could almost hear the old radio. I could smell the barn. I could feel the years between then and now disappear.
“You think of Route 66, and you think of cars and roadside signs and diners and great old songs,” Trish said. “But underneath all of that is this idea of going somewhere–of adventure and possibility.”
Maybe that is part of why Route 66 continues to capture people’s imagination a century after the highway first began carrying travelers west. The road itself has become a memory–a collection of places, people and stories stitched together by pavement.
“It has a real sense of Americana about it,” Trish said. “This show is almost like our love letter to it.”
For the audience, Trish hopes for one simple thing: that they have fun. She hopes they recognize songs they didn’t realize they knew and leave smiling, perhaps humming one or two of the tunes on their way out the door.
After the final curtain, it was difficult not to notice just how many people were already doing exactly that.
The music seemed to linger even after the stage had gone dark. By the time the door closed behind us, some of those songs were already following us into the night. Maybe that is what the Mother Road has always been about. Not simply the miles behind you, but the ones still waiting ahead.
For 100 years, Route 66 has invited people to climb into their cars, turn up the radio, and see where the road may lead. This year, in Chandler, the road is asking us to sit down and listen. For a little while, surrounded by old songs, familiar places, and memories thatsomehowbelongto all of us, it feels like the road remembers exactly where it came from…and it still knows the way forward.